Submitted Abstract

The monograph “Narrative kultureller Transformationen. Zu interkulturellen Schreibweisen in der deutschsprachigen Literatur der Gegenwart” is the outcome of Dr. Hamid Tafazoli’s research project “Gestern Migranten – Heute Bürger. Kritische Reflexionen über den Stellenwert einer Migrationsliteratur aus interkultureller Perspektive“ (Project No: 5778239). Dr. Tafazoli’s project was sponsored by the FNR between 2013 and 2015. Dr. Tafazoli has a position of a Senior Researcher at the Institute for German Language, Literature and for Intercultural Studies at the University of Luxembourg. He worked and finished his project under my mentoring. The publication of a scientific monograph was part of the agreement between FNR and Dr. Tafazoli. The editors of the volume series “Interkulturalität. Studien zu Sprache, Literatur und Gesellschaft” (Bielefeld: transcript) have agreed to publish Dr. Tafazoli’s monograph.The aim of Dr. Tafazoli’s monograph is the analysis of migration and its creative moments in cultural reflections. Based on recent theories of Cultural Studies, as we know in Stuart Hart, Paul Michael Lützeler, and Anil Bhatti and on Intercultural Studies as we teach and practice at the University of Luxembourg, Dr. Tafazoli demonstrates with the main focus on the “Poetics of Migration” in Germany since 1980 that the figure of the migrant does not necessarily represent the figure of foreigner, but a new actor of culture within the process of cultural transformation. The purpose of his monograph can be defined in two essential points: It analyses the topic of migration in its textual and filmic reflection that leads to the current controversies surrounding migration and literature – specifically in use of the categorical term “Migrationsliteratur”. In light of our understanding of the present as the age of global migrations, Tafazoli’s analysis of this term shows first that the term “Migrationsliteratur” does not conform to the expectations aroused by current cultural and literary studies. Secondly, Tafazoli’s monograph opens up the view to a number of textual and filmic works of Iranian migrants with a particular focus on their place within contemporary German/European culture. By comparing current Iranian-German literature to its counterpart in the United States, Tafazoli provides for the first time a critical anthology of the works of Iranian migrants in German language.